Thursday, June 6, 2013

Maj. Gen. Paul LaCamera, commander of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson: 'I think [marijuana] just goes against good order and discipline.'

It took our sister paper, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, about one week to debunk claims made by retired generals in front of City Council that recreational marijuana would be the end of life as we know it. Here are reporters Amy Gillentine and John Hazlehurst quoting a Pentagon spokesman on the possibility of Amendment 64 hurting local military possibilities:

“I wouldn’t think so,” said Department of Defense spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Crosson. “Military personnel are still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which clearly prohibits marijuana use. They can’t use it, and we all get drug tested.

“But we won’t move assets out of states where it is legal now.”

Of course, as the story notes, this little bit of reality did very little to assuage the manufactured fears of people like Mike Jorgensen, the president of the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance.

“The Pentagon could say, ‘We don’t have this problem in Texas, let’s move the soldiers there,’” he told the Business Journal. “It’s so controversial still, outside the area. And while no one said this will happen, the concern is there.”

And isn't that what's important, that this thing no one is saying will happen — that those in the know are confirming won't happen — might happen?

So put it on your calendar: City Council will hear public input at 1 p.m., Tuesday, June 27, at City Hall, and decide later if it's as afraid of the known as everybody else seems to be.